The City of London Festival’s programme in 2013 addresses the broad theme of conflict and resolution and reflects on the historic links between London and Derry~Londonderry, which stretch back 400 years to 1613, in an extensive range of music, poetry and other forms of art and culture. In the famous words of Gustav Mahler, “tradition is tending the flame, it’s not worshipping the ashes”, and in this spirit we are presenting a number of artists from Derry~Londonderry and the island of Ireland.
City of London Festival (highlights) Barry Douglas piano When: Wednesday 26 June 2013 Where: Stationers’ Hall, London
Events include free open-air concerts by traditional and contemporary Irish musicians around the City of London and ‘Irish Roots’, a family day on Hampstead Heath, which takes up the theme of oaks and other trees. The festival features performances of some significant newly-commissioned works within the unique and historical buildings of the ‘Square Mile’. Our partnership in At Sixes & Sevens is described on page 46. Three concerts featuring artists or programmes also appearing in Derry~Londonderry 2013 are as follows:
Barry Douglas returns to Derry~Londonderry’s Guildhall on Wednesday 3 July to conduct the world première of At Sixes & Sevens.
Brodsky Quartet
Fidelio Trio
When: Monday 24 June 2013 Where: Drapers’ Hall, London Date in Derry~Londonderry during July, TBA
When: Friday 28 June 2013 Where: LSO, St Lukes, London Date in Derry~Londonderry during July, TBA
Philip Hammond – Chanson d’Automne Elgar – Piano Quintet Nigel Osborne (& 8 other composers) – Trees, Walls and Cities (World Première)
Nigel Osborne – The Piano Tuner Frank Lyons – The River Still Sings
Loré Lixenberg Mezzo-Soprano Cathal Breslin Piano
Trees, Walls and Cities is a newly commissioned song-cycle which links the ‘walled’ cities of Derry, London, Utrecht, Berlin, Vienna, Dubrovnik, Nicosia and Jerusalem. Each song is created by a local composer working with either an existing text or, more often, with a neighbouring poet. The songs reach symbolically across the walls which divide people; the tree featured in each case represents peace, wisdom and life itself. Nigel Osborne’s music frames the cycle and links the chain of cities. Christopher Norby’s ‘Once There Was An Island’, to a text by Matt Jennings, opens the song-cycle.
Janáček – On an Overgrown Path Brahms – Sonata No 3 in F minor Op 5 Schubert – Sonata in Bb D960
James Nesbitt: Narrator Paul Moore: Sound & Video Art
(World Première)
Michael Nyman – Time Will Pronounce Ravel – Trio The centrepiece is a première of a new work by Frank Lyons, which sets a new text by Seamus Deane and is supported by sound and video art by Paul Moore. The piece reflects the continuing importance of the river to Derry~Londonderry (and also, incidentally, to the City of London). The other modern works in the programme are musical reflections and commentaries on the conflicts of Burma and Bosnia, while Ravel’s Trio of 1914 foreshadowed the Great War itself. In partnership with the Walled City Music Festival
In partnership with the Walled City Music Festival
www.cityofculture2013.com 41